O God, whenever I think of Your Infinity, I am racked
with anxiety, wondering how You are disposed to
me. . . You must adapt Your word to my smallness, so that
it can enter into the tiny dwelling of my finiteness - the only
dwelling in which I can live - without destroying it. . . If you
should speak such an "abbreviated " word, which would not say
everything but only something simple which I could grasp, then I
could breathe freely again. . . You must make your own some human
word, for that is the only kind I can comprehend. Don't tell me
everything that You are; don't tell me of Your infinity - just say
that You love me, just tell me of Your goodness to me.
Karl Rahner SJ (1904-84)
from Encounters with Silence
(Sands and Co., 1969)
NOT understanding what is being said to us can be an anxious
experience. Often, we can devise strategies to help us cope with
situations in which we struggle to grasp what is being conveyed.
We take phrase books abroad; we look up on the internet the
terminology that doctors use; and, in some cases, we just smile and
nod, hoping to pick up the thread of the conversation later on. But
what happens when there are no strategies that are sufficient to
help us to overcome the divide?
Karl Rahner was a German Jesuit and one of the great
theologians of the 20th century. In his pastoral workEncounters
with Silence, he offers a series of prayerful addresses. Each one
typically focuses on something that is causing a problem to his
understanding of God, a little like the rub on an ill-fitted
shoe.
As he ponders, however, Rahner discovers a new
understanding of how God has ordered things, so that what was a
problem becomes a gracious solution. Our prayer is one of these
pivots, in which misunderstanding is resolved, and discord becomes
harmony.
In the passages that come before this prayer, Rahner
attempts to consider the greatness of God. I say "attempts",
because what Rahner is really saying is that God far surpasses us
limited creatures. God is all-wise, all-powerful, the source of all
life, the origin of goodness. We might be able to think of a human
person who reflects one of these virtues, but never completely, and
never all of them together.
Considering God's greatness, Rahner grows afraid, and
he uses the metaphor of a conversation to communicate his fear. If
God should address him and speak such words as justice and life,
infinity and love - indeed, all of the words that point to God's
life - then he would suffer a terrible reality shock, and be
utterly overwhelmed.
The solution is something far better than a coping
strategy. Rahner asks for an "abbreviated" word to be spoken to
him. To receive from God a message that he can understand and bear
would be a dear relief. Rahner just wants to be assured that God
loves him, and is good to him.
What is this abbreviated word: is it like some divine
text-message (i luv u ϑ)? In the passages
of the book which come after this prayer, Rahner makes clear that
the word is not a "what", but a human "who": Jesus Christ brings
the words of God's love to us, in a way that we can understand.
This prayer is a good antidote if our prayer-times
have slipped solely into "chatty mode". Recalling the awesomeness
of God is good because it is true, and should lead us into praise
and worship.
This also has the great benefit of stirring up
gratitude for the gift of Jesus Christ: God's abbreviated,
understandable word to us. It reminds us that God longs for each
one of us to enter into a lifelong conversation with God, and that
this is a gift, not a dialogue that we can initiate by
ourselves.
The Revd Alison Fulford is the Rector of Hickling
with Kinoulton and Upper Broughton, in the diocese of Southwell
& Nottingham.